As of Monday, we will have finished reading the The White Boy Shuffle. I thought I would take this time to summarize what my thoughts about the book, namely the minstrel dynamic I noticed throughout. He starts off as a smart, yet still pretty naïve child, and over the course of the book we see him realize his "purpose" in life. No matter what he does, white people are always there to look at him in awe. They fail to see him as an individual, and prefer categorizing him as a black person and leaving it at that. The first chapter of the book shows us the history of Gunnar's ancestors, all who are portrayed in an eerily minstrel light. Gunnar takes this as a guide to how to not behave. However, on several instances in the beginning and more constantly later on, Gunnar starts to realize his unintentional minstrelsy.
Gunnar's upbringing is an interesting one, probably not one other kids have. He is a black boy growing up in a white, relatively accepting society, though he is still seen as "different." He is dubbed the "funny, cool black guy," already a sign of his disconnection from his white peers. He is invited to parties, but in class we mentioned that this may just be the kids wanting a "black guy," not necessarily Gunnar Kaufman. At this point, while he kind of realizes his difference, he simply sees himself in the position he's assigned. It's not until he moves to Hillside that he begins to realize his life in Santa Monica was almost a surreal one. He soon makes black friends and becomes a basketball star. While his innate talent helps him rise to popularity, he starts noticing that he is seen as more of a "basketball machine" than an individual by the white coaches and fans. His final performance at Hillside shows us what he's learned--he comes out in black face and even makes a point of sitting down on his old school's bench.
By the time he gets to college, he's started to more fully understand where he stands in society. He is a pretty well-known poet, and he realizes that whatever he does, his fans idolize him. Even upon taking off all his clothes in public and parading down the street, police officers don't arrest him because of his poetic credibility. This makes Gunnar realize that whatever he does, people will judge him for what they portray him as, not for who he actually is. I think this is the cause for his outlook on life. He doesn't really care so much about pleasing his white audience, per say. Rather, he does the exact opposite of what he would assume they would want to see. His acting this way, though, and realizing it has no effect on the crowds' delightedness, makes me realize that he really is a minstrel figure, despite his unwillingness to be one. It's almost as if the white people see him as "something different," and even if they try to be extremely accepting, they are subconsciously incapable of viewing him as anything other than a performer.
Your last paragraph reminds me especially of Native Son. Bigger knows he only has so many options given his marginalized circumstances, but he still manages to exercise his own agency within these limited parameters, for example by murdering Bessie. Similarly, Gunnar can't seem to shake the dazzling effect he has on his onlookers, so he does the best he can to incorporate at least some expression of protest when he can, whether it's by playing basketball in white face or streaking in the streets.
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DeleteI definitely agree that Gunnar exits minstrelsy throughout the novel, no matter his situation. This dynamic helps illustrate the racism of this time. I also see his connection to Bigger in the inevitability of this minstrelsy. Even though Gunnar's situation is more subtle than Bigger's, they were both forced into similar uncomfortable situations.
ReplyDeleteGunnar doesn't seem like an intentional minstrel, but he seems to fall into these "minstrely" roles such as the "cool black guy", the basketball star, and the black poet. These are all thing, except "the cool black guy", that Gunnar enjoys doing, but thanks to pre-existing stereotypes he is painted as a minstrel.
ReplyDeleteBy comparing Gunnar and the roles he has stepped into to his story from the beginning of the novel, it is clear that there is an inevitability to his minstrelsy. Through his narration he definitely gave the message that he doesn't want to end up like his past family, but he does anyway. This dynamic can be accredited to the way white people see him as something different, as you mention. When the cops back off from Gunnar since he is a poet, it is because his professor warns them who he is. More specifically, the professor makes a slip and accidentally calls him a "black poet" before correcting himself. This revealing dialogue is key in understanding the minstrelsy Gunnar faces because it gives us a glimpse into the thoughrs that constantly sit in white people's minds in the novel.
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